The Fair Folk
Please Note: This is a work in progress and not complete. The Fair Folk The Elves are prominent in the Dark Times Saga, as it covers much of their civil war between the Selee and Unselee "Courts" two rival political factions within Elven culture. The Elves (or "Fair Folk" as they are often called due to their beauty) are one of the Ashur or "Older Races". Though not actually immortal, they can seem so by Human standards as they live for hundreds, even thousands of years. For information on the power structure of current Elven society, see Elven Power Groups. Appearance Slight of build with lithe frames and large, pointed ears; Elves are most often exceptionally beautiful / handsome and if a "plain" elf is a rarety, an ugly Elf is almost never born. This makes Elves seem quite similair to other races in their appearance, though they can vary wildly in their looks. Generally speaking however, they are all quite tall (most males stand a little over six feet and the females just under), slim and have vibrant hair colours. Elven Sub-races Elves come in two cultural sub-types: The Selee Fae Follow the ways of light and order, are disciplined and work towards perfection in all things. The Unselee Fae Follow the ways of dark and chaos, valuing freedom and passion above all things. Magic & Technology Elves are favourable to magic in all its forms and although most feel an affinity with the ancient nature magics, others use arcane magic and some (rarely) even use divine-fuelled faith magic. Elves are one of the few races that can master The Art, a powerful and unstable magic which allows direct manipulation of dark energies. Because of this, many join the Shadonain Order. Technilogically speaking the Elves are capable of creating spectacular and fantastical architecture of esquisite beauty which tend to be magically enhanced to last several thousand years. Despite having their fair share of hostilities in their history, they spent little time creating weapons of war, and although their few armaments they did make were magical in nature, they could never build the base item with the same skill as The Dwarves nor produce them as quickly with any degree of skill. Personality Due to their long lives, Elves tend to be great planners and thinkers, but are often slow to act compared to the "Younger" races such as Orcs and Humans. Due to this they are after drawn to the younger races for their zeal, but tend to find them too short-lived to create meaninful relations with. Languages The vast majority of the Elven people speak La'lyen or 'The Common Elven Tongue' which is a cut down and simplified version of Wyoi-ret'lyen or 'High Elven' which is almost never spoken outside of Religious ceremonies or hymns, though both Common Elven and High Elven are commonly used in Elven Literature. The Elven tongue used in the Dark Times saga is almost exclusively La'lyen. Elves also have a tendancy to learn a couple of other languages as well due to the tradition of trying to improve oneself culturaly. Most Elves will speak either Draconian or Hodak-Ur ('Earth-Speech', the ancient tongue of the Dwarves), and will often pick up any regional dialects of an area if they frequent there for more than a couple of years. Talents Although Elves of all types (even Marauders in their own sick and twisted way) have many talents of a creative nature such as artistry, dance, song and acting, the race as a whole has a unique talent which makes them stand apart from all other races: Magic. For Elves, magic comes exceptionally easily and instinctively allowing them to master certain techniques which would take other races years or even decades to accomplish. Due to this magic is ever-present in their society, it exists and permiates everything from education and menial tasks to architecture and warfare. Even without any formal training an Elf can pick up and instinctively use almost any magical device and even minimal training will allow them to enchant mundane items and imbue them with magical energies. Belief & Religion Belief in The Cosmic Balance is common in Elven society, as it is with many of the Ashur. Most consider this to be a way of behaviour rather than a religion however, with the one exception being the Shadonian Order who follow the Equalibris. Many Elves revere nature as a Godess of sorts, though they tie no image or idols to it; similar to believing in "mother earth". They also worship / respect a diverse group of nature spirits and hold many festivals honouring them. Elves believe in an afterlife that is a lush unspoiled land they call "The Spirit Fields" where a spirit resides until they wish to rejoin the living (this time is undeterminable) when this happens they are "reborn" (a little like reincarnation, the spirit moves into another body) The History of The Elves The most ancient of Elven texts hint that the Fair Folk civilisation could be as old as twenty-thousand years, though no officially documented records go back further than RC500. Many texts, stories and artwork pre-date this time however and a collection of tablets in the Royal Archives clearly indicate the legendary Elven Sorcereress Meishri as a member of the Champions of Dorvach in an event that the Changeling texts referred to as "The Halting of The Dead" over 13,000 years ago. Many of their greatest achievements have been documented in times of War such as when they were instrumental in ending "The War of The Dragon" a little over twelve hundred years ago. King Darkstrider (though a Prince at the time) helped rebuke the Draconian forces by trapping their invincible Dragon-king, The Mighty Gargan deep in the bowels of the earth in a Dwarven-constructed prison enhanced with Elven magic. The Darkest time in Elven history happened a little over eight-hundred and fifty years ago when border disputes between the Elves and Dwarves erupted into all-out war which was later referred to as The War Of Ages in which Elven ages working behind then then King Dalamarn's back released a magical plague which killed every single member of the Landris race, down to the last individual. This genocidal act still hangs heavy on the collective shoulders of the Elves as a species, though few of the original Elves involved in the act are still alive today. Yet, only a short time after this atrocity were the Elves themselves the victim of a great disaster, in the form of Dwarven retribution. Fanatical Dwarven extremists managed to rally almost forty percent of the entire Dwarven people into what they considered a 'justified crusade' against the Elven people which spearheaded an invasion right into the heart of the Elven civilisation in northern Orlia. In a titanic battle the Dwarven extremists unleashed a terrorfying doomsday weapon which utterly obliterated the northern Elven provinces and killed over half of the entire world's Elven population and almost all of the invading Dwarf force. This cataclysmic event created what is now known as The Deadlands and elevated Prince Darkstrider to King after the death of his father, Dalamarn. One of the new King's first decrees was to end the war with the Dwarves and came to an agreement with the Dwarven King Bolthar II which stipulated that the Elves would forever leave Orlia and were exiled to the land of Ath by way of a massive magical gate than only those of Elven or Dwarven Royal blood could operate. The Elves remained in seclusion for over seven-hundred and fifty years but of late the land of Ath has fallen into disarray. King Darkstrider has vanished and his wife Queen Shadina has taken the throne, radically reshaping Elven society into a vehicle of war and has declared her son, Prince Moonsfell a traitor to the crown for reasons which seem unclear at best. Moonsfell himself has formed a rebellion against his mother composed of Royal Guard still loyal to his father. Navigation Back to Darkest Knight infobase Category:Fan Fiction